When Will Pokemon GO Be Available in the United States and Europe? (UPDATED)

UPDATE: POKEMON GO IS NOW LIVE IN THE UNITED STATES! The game went live shortly before 9 PM Eastern time.

Pokemon fans in the United States and Europe spent most of their day desperately refreshing their Google Play and Apple App stores, hoping that Pokemon GO would magically appear. Unfortunately, while the hotly anticipated "augmented reality" game was released in Australia and New Zealand late last evening, the rest of the world is still waiting. Still, many fans found a way around Apple and Android's geographic limits, leading to Pokemon GO's servers crashing after only a day.

So when will Pokemon GO be released in other regions? The Pokemon Company's only official comment was that fans should "please wait a while" for the app's release. That's not exactly promising for fans hoping to spend the upcoming weekend finding Pokemon in their neighborhood. However, "a while" shouldn't mean more than a few weeks, as Nintendo promised the game would be out by the end of July to coincide with the release of the Pokemon GO Plus device.

It's likely that Pokemon GO will be released on a region by region basis similar to its beta test earlier this spring. Nintendo and Niantic initially tested Pokemon GO in Japan only, and added Australia and the United States in subsequent monthly intervals. So, we could see a few more days like today, where a country/region gets access to the game but thousands are left disappointed because they're still left out in the cold.

Pokemon GO may not be out today, but fans should take hope knowing the game will be released in a matter of weeks and not months. Plus, today's limited release is probably a blessing in disguise, as Niantic and Nintendo now know they need to really bolster their servers before a worldwide release.